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In early 2012, Michael Scott Moore, a Californian writer "with a weakness for big ideas" took himself off to Somalia to research a new book. Already the author of an acclaimed study of how West Coast surf culture had spread across the world, he wanted to write about some less cuddly Beach Boys – the pirates operating from Somalia's vast, lawless coast.

It was, to put it mildly, something of a change of scene. Despite enlisting a trusted fixer with good clan connections, Moore ended up being kidnapped himself. To add insult to injury, a member of the gang that held him turned out to be a buccaneer he had interviewed in the pirate port of Hobyo. Even his captors told him he should have stayed at...